You can't have thought of
what it entails. Surely, surely, you won't carry your ideas of
freedom to such an extreme, such a dangerous conclusion!"
Herminia looked up at him, half hurt. "Can't have thought of what
it entails!" she repeated. Her dimples deepened. "Why, Alan,
haven't I had my whole lifetime to think of it? What else have I
thought about in any serious way, save this one great question of a
woman's duty to herself, and her sex, and her unborn children?
It's been my sole study. How could you fancy I spoke hastily, or
without due consideration on such a subject? Would you have me
like the blind girls who go unknowing to the altar, as sheep go to
the shambles? Could you suspect me of such carelessness?--such
culpable thoughtlessness?--you, to whom I have spoken of all this
so freely?"
Alan stared at her, disconcerted, hardly knowing how to answer.
"But what alternative do you propose, then?" he asked in his
amazement.
"Propose?" Herminia repeated, taken aback in her turn. It all
seemed to her so plain, and transparent, and natural.
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